The idea for the Setting the Stage name came from a pun on campaign settings and that also being a word for setting up a stage in theater, just like campaign settings are the stage for a D&D campaign. The icon has a further pun with setting a plate. And the meal is a D&D campaign book.

To give it the right feel, I wanted to have the book have a little chomp taken out of it. It’s a meal after all! Of course actually biting through a thick D&D book was out of the question. My wife said I should’ve dipped the corner in barbeque sauce and had our dog chew on it. I went with tool usage instead.

I started off with some clamps to keep the book in place while I worked away on the corner. Then I got out my drill.

I drilled holes with even spacing to create the outlines of teeth marks. With a little more vigorous wiggling of the drill I managed to get both covers and the pages loose enough to pry them off. That left me with something resembling a bite mark.

With my prop fully destructed I set up the photo.

And then a little red filter to give it some ambience and the title of the podcast on top. Voila! Podcast icon!